Indian River Life-Saving
Station
Delaware Seashore State
Park
Rehoboth Beach, DE
October 12th, 2007
The
closing of the Civil War brought an end to the reports of death and carnage.
This allowed other tragedies to get attention. Although the age of the
iron hull ship and steam had arrived, many old wooden sailing ships still plied
their trade along the Eastern seaboard. An unexpected storm or a Captain's
bad choice sent many of these ships crashing into the rocks. The rescue of the
unfortunates stranded aboard, so close, yet so far away from land and safety,
became a concern of the Federal Government. In 1876 the United States
Life-Saving Service (USLSS) was established. All up and down the Eastern
seaboard, stations were established at intervals of from 4 to 7 miles.
They were manned by a Keeper and from 6 to 8 hardy, local brave men who had a
good knowledge of local tides and obstacles off shore. During the
"storm 
season"
of September through April these "surfmen" were paid 10 dollars a
month to stand by at the station, keep watch for ships in distress, and rescue
those in need. It was a dangerous and daring adventure, not for the faint
of heart. With the Delaware coastline being some of the most dangerous on
the Eastern seaboard, the Indian River Station was one of the first built. It
was completed in 1876 and served with distinction until 1915 when the (USLSS)
merged with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to from the present day U. S. Coast
Guard. The Coast Guard continued to use the station until 1962, when it was
abandoned. It is estimated that the US Lifesaving Service surfmen saved some
177,000 lives over a 44 year period from 1871 to 1915. Over time the buildings deteriorated
and had it not been for a group of concerned citizens, it might have been lost
completely. But this was not to be its fate. The Seashore 
Preservation
Foundation completely restored the station and it was opened to the public in
1998. As magnificent as the restoration was, without a story to tell, a building
is just a building. The writing of the story of Indian River station can
be, for the most part, credited to one man. Washington A. Vickers, the
Indian River Station Keeper from 1883 to 1907. His meticulous well penned
entries in the station log gives an insight to successes and failures that made
up life at the station. W.A. Vicker's life began in Seaford Delaware in
1842. By the time he was 20, war was raging between the States. He joined
the Confederacy at Richmond and served in the Maryland Infantry until shot at Gettysburg.
After an extended stay in a hospital, he was returned to duty but the
wound was too severe for him to keep up and he was sidelined to a medical unit
until the end of the war. At the end of the war he took his oath of
amnesty and returned to Delaware. He started his surfman's career in 1878
at Hog Island station and then moved to the Assataegue station, and then on to
Indian River.
The first room we came to, upon entering the station was the "Mess
Room". This room, like many in the house has been meticulously restored to
its 1905 condition. Although there are few artifacts remaining that were
actually used at Indian River, most came from surrounding life-saving stations
along the Delaware coast. I sat down at the table that must have seen a
many a meal over a lively conversation of the last great rescue or the up and
coming beach patrols. The meals would have been prepared on the small
stove behind me, from food stores kept either in the white "ice box"
under the "crank phone" or in the pantry who's door is at
the left side of the back wall. As often occurred in hazardous jobs there were
certain superstitions which existed in the job. One such superstition may
have come from a 1899 USLSS regulation which read in part: "
A Keeper will not desist
from his efforts until by actual trial the impossibility of effecting a rescue
is demonstrated. The statement of a Keeper that he did not try to use the
boat because the sea or surf was to heavy will not be accepted unless attempts
to launch it were actually made and failed."
The Cape Hatteras Life-saving station's log gives credit to
Keeper Patrick Etheridge who was the first to utter "The Book says
we've got to go out and it doesn't say a darn thing about having to come
back" A fact that is born out in the actual regulation. His
comment, thus recorded, soon became an unofficial Motto for the Life-saving
service. The superstition that the mess room table had to be set at all times, insuring
that there was a place to eat for everybody who went out on a rescue, may have
come from this motto. The station phone was one of the first phones in the
area. Many rescues required more men than a station had and the call would
go out to adjacent stations to come and help.